Surviving in the Amazon Jungle

(Picture of my brother and me swimming in a lagoon in Ecuador’s Amazon Jungle.)

Last week, my brother and I spent four days in the Amazon jungle in northeast Ecuador in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, which is a 250,000 acre rainforest with 13 lagoons, 15 species of monkeys, 60 species of orchids, over 500 types of birds, and dozens of swamps and lakes. Few parts of the world have as much biodiversity.

When our canoe pulled up to our camp site of sorts (huts elevated above water by stilts), a guide put out his hand to pull us up to the dock and said, "Welcome to the jungle. Get your stuff ready. We’re going piranha fishing."

And so began several days of getting in the canoe, winding our way through endless primary forest, checking out animals, listening to sounds, watching for freshwater dolphins, hiking through swampy forest, and meeting indigenous people. The color green dominated. The forest was so green that a non-green anything seemed out-of-place. The green forest simmered all the more against a deep blue sky populated by marshmallow-like clouds. Beautiful. I felt like I was in Planet Earth.

We visited an indigenous community. It’s surreal to see an indigenous kid run around, barefoot and dark, wielding a machete to cut up some yucca for dinner. Does he even go to school? What are his days like? Has he ever seen a computer? What would his reaction be if placed in a Wal-Mart?

We visited a Shaman — a healer who uses local plants for medicinal purposes. He had an arrow inserted through his nostrils horizontally.

Jungle living requires certain lifestyle tradeoffs, of course. No electricity in the huts. No hot water. A toilet that struggles to process a flush. Sleep on a mattress underneath a mosquito net. Bugs dead and alive surround you. Bug bites galore — especially when you first wake up.

It feels strange saying this, but one of the most interesting parts of our Jungle stay had nothing to do with nature. Instead, it had to do with meeting and talking with others staying at the Samona Lodge. People from Denmark, Germany, Ecuador, U.S., Russia, Korea, Italy, elsewhere. After we had gotten into bed the last night, we could still hear loud bouts of laughter coming from the common area where after-dinner conversation stretched on. As I lay there, sleep elusive due to the laughter, I pondered what was happening outside: strangers from all over the world sharing their ideas, cultural customs, odd idioms, Jungle stories, political views. The next day, we would depart, and probably never see each other again. But the few moments together reinforced for us all a concept often talked about in travel circles: our common humanity is more remarkable than our cultural differences.

This process was magnified, I think, with the backdrop of the Jungle. We’d all trekked into this remote part of the world, with varying levels of apprehension about the lack of modern-civilization accouterments; but, we survived, shared tips, stories, and food. Common goals bring together uncommon people, and sometimes even teach us how we’re actually not all that uncommon after all.

An outdoor adventure trip was a refreshing change from the usual pattern of visiting big cities and their museums, urban parks, and skyscrapers. I recommend Ecuador. South America intrigues — I’ll be back!

9 Responses to Surviving in the Amazon Jungle

Ben, this trip sounds incredible. Did you use a particular travel group? I’m wondering how you organized a stay in the jungle. If you get a second, I’d love a quick email with any of the people or groups you used to get yourself there. Within the next 2 years, I’m hoping to do a similar trip. Thanks!

Cute related story–this was about four years ago and I was in Virginia on a backpacking trip. There was this one really beautiful, thin, dark-skinned round-eyed girl who modeled at the time. She was so small that she had to pad her hips to fit into the backpack frame, and for some reason she never tied her boots. Anyway she started having a really rough time on week two or so, and one day she just went absolutely apeshit. I was hiking behind her, basically peeing my pants cracking up, watching her untied boots kick everything she could on the move, while she was screaming “I HATE THE COLOR GREEN! I WILL NEVER WEAR GREEN AGAIN! AND BROWN! I NEED TO EXFOLIATE!”

I guess you had to have been there. Either way it was cute. Hope you’re doing well, can’t wait to get back to school and catch up. Hoo boy do I have things to talk about.

did you catch any parana
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